Iran has Trump 'over a political barrel' as Project Freedom paused: Lyons | ABC NEWS

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists the ceasefire with Iran is still intact and Operation Epic Fury, launched in late February, is over.The claim comes despite the United Arab Emirates saying it has come under drone and missile attacks from Iran for a second day in a row, with one drone penetrating air defences and striking an oil port.US and Iranian forces have launched attacks in the Gulf of Oman yesterday, with the White House claiming its forces sunk six Iranian gunboats.US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told journalists the operation to restore freedom of navigation to the Strait of Hormuz, dubbed Project Freedom, is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury.

President Trump has directed US Central Command to restart the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz under the umbrella of Project Freedom.To be clear, this operation is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury.No, the ceasefire is not over.Ultimately, this is a separate and distinct project.And we expected there would be some churn at the beginning, which happened.And we said we would defend and defend aggressively, and we absolutely have.

Iran knows that.

Mr Rubio says US operations in the Gulf of Oman are now strictly defensive and told reporters that no country can be allowed to control an international waterway.

There is no international law that allows you to say, I'm going to put mines in an international body of water and I'm going to blow up ships that don't listen to us and try to go through.That's what Iran is doing.This is a criminal act and someone needs to do something about it.it.

Let's go to America's editor John Lyons who joins us now from Washington.John, how convincing are these claims from the White House?

Well, Gemma, we're getting very mixed messages here, in fact, sort of breaking news for the viewers.A few minutes ago, President Trump put out another announcement on his Truth Social site where he's suspending that Project Freedom, which we've just heard Secretary Hegseth talk about, which was the US Navy trying to escort US flagships through the Strait of Hormuz.They've only managed to do two ships, given there's about 2000 or so that are stranded.It's obviously insignificant in terms of the movement through the strait.It was more a symbolic thing by the Americans.But President Trump, a few minutes ago, has said that we have mutually...

This is based on the request of Pakistan and other countries, he says.We have mutually agreed that while the blockade will remain in full force and effect in the Strait of Hormuz, Project Freedom, which he describes as the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not an agreement can be finalised and signed.So I think the significance of this is that having just imposed this, it looks to me like President Trump is hoping that this leverage, this latest move of chess move of his to try to get ships through the Strait was enough to convince the Iranians to sign something.And so I think based on that truth social a few minutes ago, I think although this is the fog of war and nothing is certain, I think this means we are a little bit closer in material terms to an end to this war.

Yeah, so, you know, a major development therebecause you know they've been questions around opportunities for diplomacy you know and suggestions that they've been unraveling and also questions about how likely it would be for the US and Israel to engage in a new wave of attacks on Iran.What is the assessment of that and that developing news that you've just brought us?How does that play into this?

Well, I think the political dynamic here is, I think, Israel, which of course argued strongly for this war.incredible reporting in the New York Times about how the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the Situation Room beneath the White House with the head of Mossad when they argued to Donald Trump that we should attack Iran.And Vice President Vance, for example, just said no.He resisted it.President Trump, in the end, decided to go ahead with Israel in this war.Politically, it's been a disaster for President Trump.

His ratings, he's just recorded a 62 per cent disapproval rating.So Donald Trump is politically bleeding by the day.And those midterm elections are coming in November.Republicans are looking at disaster.The Republicans now are looking at not just losing the House of Representatives, but losing possibly the Senate as well, based on all published polls.So politically, this is poor for Donald Trump.

Petrol prices here have gone from $2 .75 a gallon to about $4 .30, $4 .50 and on their way up to five or six dollars now.Australia, obviously, around the world, everybody's feeling that sort of pain at the petrol pump.And so Donald Trump wants out of this.And in my assessment, strategically, the Iranians can see that.Let's not forget the Iranians over history have been smart.Donald Trump talked about killing

their civilisation when he said a civilisation will die tonight.The Persian civilisation has been going 3 ,000 years.They have fought many battles in that time.And whatever people say about the regime in Iran, I've seen them up close and they are brutal.The Persian culture is one that has always handled many of its battles, like the Iran -Iraq war.And so I think the Iranians see that they have Donald Trump over a political barrel and they want to really drive that home.

So to me, this now looks like Donald Trump is retreating, Donald Trump's blinking.It looks to me like Donald Trump's showing weakness now.And so if the Iranians now come to the table from an apparent position of strength, the closure of that Strait of Hormuz, I think that there's much more likelihood of a deal being done fairly quickly.

And John, Donald Trump is set to meet with China's President Xi Jinping next week.How might the war influence that meeting?How might the meeting influence the war?

Well, fascinating meeting, because China's been sitting back and although they've been hit, being hit financially, economically from this, because, of course, they rely on that straight of Hormuz more than anybody.China, in such a trading powerhouse, they want the trading arteries to be open.So economically, they've been hit.But politically, they would be sitting back in Beijing and watching the United States, watching its internal institutions watching this president suffer, where they are trying to portray themselves as the stable nation.And so when the Americans go, Secretary Rubio said today that Taiwan will be discussed when President Trump meets President Xi.Now, what a fascinating conversation that is.

Can the United States now say to President Xi that you should never try to take over or blockade Taiwan?given that President Xi can say, well, look what you've been doing with the state of Hormuz.Look what you did with Venezuela.Now, President Trump's foreign policy in a nutshell is that every hemisphere has its own, is cauterised and has its own culture.Now, he is essentially saying America should be worried about Canada, the United States, Latin America, and that China can worry about its neighbourhood.And so President Xi will be trying to to suss out whether President Trump would put up any resistance should they go ahead.

Let's not forget President Xi has said that he thinks that China should retake, in quotes, Taiwan.And so the fact that Taiwan will be discussed when there's this havoc in the Middle East caused by a war of choice by the United States and Israel.So I think President Xi will be going into that meeting feeling that he is talking from a position of stability.